Master of Operational Oceanography

Gain Marketable Skills in 12 Months

A combination of hands-on experience, research, and targeted coursework empowers our students to tackle real world challenges and provides them with an edge over other candidates in the job market.

The Master of Operational Oceanography track is a compact 12-month Master of Science degree program providing thorough but efficient applied training for students from around the world. For Rutgers students, it also provides a concise path for marine science undergraduates to earn a master’s with a single year of additional training (a “4+1” model).

With small class numbers and an individualized mentorship model, we support our students in building :

• marine science expertise
• collaborative skills
• observing system technology experience
• data literacy
• ocean modeling literacy
• communication skills
• job preparation

Our Program

The Master of Operational Oceanography track is grounded in a three prong approach: building foundational knowledge and practical skills through core courses, providing opportunities to gain real experience working with marine technology, and fostering connections with professionals and peers.

Core Courses

Summer Session III:

16:712:507 Field Laboratory Methods 1:
This field course provides hands-on training in the field. The focus will be on providing a range of practical skills for the remote sensing and fixed point ocean data systems.

Fall Semester:

16:712:501 Physical Oceanography:
Physical properties and basic equations for describing waves, tides, currents, and the large-scale wind-driven and thermohaline circulation. Ekman, geostrophic, and inertial flows. Gulf Stream; air-sea interactions; El Niño.

16:712:505 Integrated Ocean Observing 1:
The course exposes students to a wide range of operational data streams anchoring ocean forecasting with hands on training using Eulerian tools and time series approaches.

16:712:509 Integrated Ocean Observing – Software Bootcamp:
The aim of the course is to introduce some widely used software tools and teach basic coding practices. The goal is to help students jump start research by acquiring the skills to work efficiently with their data. Topics to be covered include: Jupyter notebooks/lab, the Unix shell: interacting with your computer programmatically and reproducibly, Python programming (including common geoscience libraries: numpy, matplotlib, pandas, xarray, cartopy …), version control (git), accessing public earth science datasets. The course will assume no prior coding experience and is aimed at beginners. The course will aim to build a solid programming foundation to accelerate your data analysis. The course will culminate in a project of each student’s choosing. Ideally this will be a task that directly builds on/complements your research.

16:712:510 Operational Ocean Modeling/Visualization 1:
Course provides an overview of the major modeling and numerical tools with a focus on using operational modeling systems, running the models, and using model outputs as a synthesis tool.

01:450:321 Geographic Information Systems:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly growing field that is increasingly popular for a wide range of spatial analyses. Some of the uses for GIS include environmental modeling, urban and land use planning, facilities management, social and demographic change analyses, economic development, site suitability analyses, marketing, and community development and enrichment initiatives.

Spring Semester:

16:712:506 Integrated Ocean Observing 2:
The course exposes students to a wide range of operational data streams anchoring ocean forecasting with hands on training using Lagrangian tools and time series approaches.

16:712:508 Field Laboratory Methods 2:
This field course provides hands-on training in the field. The focus will be on providing a range of practical skills for using mobile autonomous systems.

Field Experience

Our students benefit from joining one of the worlds most advanced and longest operating ocean observatories. As part of our team, students work directly with our faculty, technicians, and partners across NJ and worldwide to deploy and repair gliders, help install and maintain our high frequency radar network, and operate marine equipment to support ongoing RUCOOL research.

Mentoring

Students participate in group and individual meetings throughout the program so that we can best support them both during the program and as they embark on their career path. Group meetings allow students to learn from and collaborate with the entire RUCOOL group. Meanwhile, 1-on-1 meetings help our faculty to identify and work with each student to meet their research and career goals.

Current Students
Brian Buckingham	Jessica Leonard	Matthew Learn	Jason Seiple
Joseph DiDomenico	Bodhi Fox	Clayton Smith

Testimonials

Alumni
Charlotte Bramich	Sal Fricano	Jesse Noble	Nicholas Occhiogrosso
Scott Pescatore	Trivik Ragha	Sophie Scopazzi	Leslie Birch
Emily Busch	Bre Direnzi	Rhyan Grech	Yachen Li
Jake Zappala	Courtney Dreyfus	Casey Jones	Malarie O’Brien
Timothy Stolarz	Ailey Sheehan	Ted Thompson	Joseph Anarumo
Julia Engdahl

Our Team

	Alex Lopez Assistant Teaching Professor and Program Director
Oscar Schofield Department Chair	Scott Glenn Distinguished Professor	Josh Kohut Professor
Travis Miles Assistant Professor	Grace Saba Associate Professor	Max Gorbunov Research Professor

Application Instructions

Applications received by January 1 receive full consideration. Applications received after that may be considered on a rolling basis but are not guaranteed. The program begins in late July each year.

For information about applying to Rutgers graduate school see this page: http://gradstudy.rutgers.edu/.

Application requirements include: a Personal Statement, official undergraduate transcripts, and three letters of recommendation. The GRE is not required for this degree program.

Application Requirements

A baccalaureate degree in marine science or related field, and one year of calculus and physics.

Costs and Funding

Master of Operational Oceanography students are self-funded, however funding assistance may be available depending on research focus. Full cost of the program attendance is based on university tuition and fees rates for the School of Graduate Studies, found here.